In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.
- Preface

1. An instrument used for writing, usually made of the quill of some large fowl, but it may be of any other material.

2. A feather, a wing. [Not used.]

PEN, v.t. pret. and pp. penned. To write; to compose and commit to paper.

PEN, n. A small inclosure for beasts, as for cows or sheep.

PEN, v.t. pret. and pp. penned or pent. To shut in a pen; to confine in a small inclosure; to coop; to confine in a narrow place, usually followed by up, which is redundant.

Evolution (or devolution) of this word [pen]

1828 Webster

1844 Webster

1913 Webster

PEN, n. [L. penna; pinna, a fin, that is, a shoot or point.]

1. An instrument used for writing, usually made of the quill of some large fowl, but it may be of any other material.

2. A feather, a wing. [Not used.]

PEN, v.t. pret. and pp. penned. To write; to compose and commit to paper.

PEN, n. A small inclosure for beasts, as for cows or sheep.

PEN, v.t. pret. and pp. penned or pent. To shut in a pen; to confine in a small inclosure; to coop; to confine in a narrow place, usually followed by up, which is redundant.

PEN, n.1 [L. penna; Sax. pinn; D. pen; It. penna, a feather, a pen, and a top; W. pen, top, summit, head; Ir. beann, beinn, written also ben. The Celtic nations called the peak of a mountain, ben or pen. Hence the name Apennine, applied to the mountains of Italy. It may belong to the same root as L. pinna, a fin, that is a shoot or point.]

An instrument used for writing, usually made of the quill of some large fowl, but it may be of any other material.

A feather; a wing. [Not used.] – Spenser.

PEN, n.2 [Sax. pinan, to press, or pyndan, to pound or shut up; both probably from one root.]

A small inclosure for beasts, as for cows or sheep.

PEN, v.t.1 [pret. and pp. penned.]

To write; to compose and commit to paper. – Addison.

PEN, v.t.2 [pret. and pp. penned or pent.]

To shut in a pen; to confine in a small inclosure; to coop; to confine in a narrow place; usually followed by up, which is redundant. – Boyle. Milton.

Pen

A feather.

[Obs.] Spenser.

To write] to compose and commit to paper; to
indite; to compose; as, to pen a sonnet.

"A prayer
elaborately penned." Milton.

To shut up, as in a pen or
cage] to confine in a small inclosure or narrow space; to coop up, or
shut in; to inclose.

"Away with her, and pen her up."
Shak.

Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at
eve.Milton.

A small inclosure; as, a pen for sheep or for
pigs.

My father stole two geese out of a
pen.Shak.

A wing.

[Obs.] Milton.

An instrument used for writing with ink,
formerly made of a reed, or of the quill of a goose or other bird, but
now also of other materials, as of steel, gold, etc. Also, originally,
a stylus or other instrument for scratching or graving.

Graven with an iron pen and lead in the
rock.Job xix. 24.

Fig.: A writer, or his style; as, he has a
sharp pen.

"Those learned pens."
Fuller.

The internal shell of a
squid.

A
female swan.

[Prov. Eng.]

Bow pen. See Bow-pen. --
Dotting pen, a pen for drawing dotted
lines. -- Drawing, or Ruling,
pen, a pen for ruling lines having a pair of
blades between which the ink is contained. -- Fountain
pen, Geometric pen. See under
Fountain, and Geometric. -- Music
pen, a pen having five points for drawing the five lines
of the staff. -- Pen and ink, or pen-
and-ink, executed or done with a pen and ink; as, a
pen and ink sketch. -- Pen feather.
A pin feather. [Obs.] -- Pen name. See
under Name. -- Sea pen(Zoöl.), a pennatula. [Usually written sea-
pen.]

1828 Webster

1844 Webster

1913 Webster

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Pen

PEN, noun [Latin penna; pinna, a fin, that is, a shoot or point.]

1. An instrument used for writing, usually made of the quill of some large fowl, but it may be of any other material.

2. A feather, a wing. [Not used.]

PEN, verb transitivepreterit tense and participle passive penned. To write; to compose and commit to paper.

PEN, noun A small inclosure for beasts, as for cows or sheep.

PEN, verb transitivepreterit tense and participle passive penned or pent. To shut in a pen; to confine in a small inclosure; to coop; to confine in a narrow place, usually followed by up, which is redundant.

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The use of accurate definitions, based upon biblical context, is paramount in teaching the application of God's word to our daily lives.

— Todd (Colorado Springs, CO)

Word of the Day

1. Weight; consequence; a bearing on some interest; that quality of any thing by which it may affect a measure, interest or result. The education of youth is of great importance to a free government. A religious education is of infinite importance to every human being.

Random Word

1. To strike; to throw, drive or force against, as the fist or hand, a stone or a weapon; to reach with a blow or a weapon; as, to smite one with the fist; to smite with a rod or with a stone. Whoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Matt. 5.

2. To kill; to destroy the life of by beating or by weapons of any kind; as, to smite one with the sword, or with an arrow or other engine. David smote Goliath with a sling and a stone. The Philistines were often smitten with great slaughter. [This word, like slay, usually or always signification, that of beating, striking, the primitive mode of killing. We never apply it to the destruction of life by poison, by accident or by legal execution.]

3. To blast; to destroy life; as by a stroke or by something sent. The flax and the barley were smitten. Ex. 9.

4. To afflict; to chasten; to punish. Let us not mistake God's goodness, nor imagine, because he smites us, that we are forsaken by him.

5. To strike or affect with passion. See what the charms that smite the simple heart. Smit with the love of sister arts we came.

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